


Smooth Operator

by keepasecretgetastrawberry



Series: Klance One Shots [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Discussion of Consent Issues, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gay, Light Angst, M/M, Mission Fic, Pining Keith (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-24
Updated: 2017-09-24
Packaged: 2019-01-05 02:24:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12181062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keepasecretgetastrawberry/pseuds/keepasecretgetastrawberry
Summary: Anon prompt on tumblr:I was going through the prompt list you reblogged annnnnnnnnd, "In my defence, I thought this would go a lot more smoothly." Seems like perfect Klance material to me. I don't know if you need anymore to go on aside from that prompt, cause I've never really asked for something like this before. Thanks!aka, Lance's plans don't always go as planned, but they work out in the end.





	Smooth Operator

“So, your plan is to  _flirt_  with them?”

“Not like that, you jerk! Just… let them realise that they’ve got a lot more freedom than they know.”  Keith scowled. “I’m not sure I like this plan.”  

The Vruihr were a race taken over by the Galra centuries ago; they had the interesting abilities of telepathy and telekinesis, which made them valuable. Upon landing on Vrui in order to take out the main Galra base on-planet, Lance and Keith had separated from the rest of the team to investigate their surroundings. What they’d found had been… unexpected.  

The Vruihr weren’t hostile, but also didn’t appear to be opposed to their planet being dictated by the Galra Empire. From what Lance concluded, they had been brainwashed; it was a likely assumption given the amount of generations that would have passed down, being told what they needed to hear so they would carry out every whim of the people enslaving them. It was… surprisingly non-harmful, for the Galra - which kinda weirded Keith out.   

Lance, unsurprisingly, was a lot better at communicating with the Vruihr than Keith was - reassuring them with gentle smiles, cracking out quips and bad puns at every turn, acting out, just being… Well, Keith supposed, he was just being Lance. Which Keith couldn’t exactly fault him for; it was part of his nature, and Keith definitely didn’t mind it when he was on the receiving end. 

Which may have been the problem.  

Okay,  _so,_  he was jealous. He was allowed to be! Lance was his teammate, his right-hand-man, his… well,  _everything._ No one had meant this much to him since Shiro, which was, well… terrifying. 

Keith hadn’t grown up around people he could trust. His mum had left him, and he’d never really stayed anywhere long enough to make strong connections with others. If it wasn’t for Shiro, who knew where he would have ended up.  

So when Shiro had disappeared…  _twice_ … it had kinda messed him up. He hadn’t felt that alone, that lost in what felt like forever… it had hurt.  

Which was why he was terrified. Because being close to Lance and having someone else to connect with was great and all, but the idea of losing him hurt Keith to think about. They were fighting a war, they all knew that; people died in wars. If Keith had to lose someone he cared about again, he didn’t think he’d be able to handle it.  

Lance’s communication with the Vruihr had resulted in some new-found information: that the aliens were chosen randomly and allocated partners to reproduce with. This was where Lance’s smile had slipped; he’d begun protesting that that wasn’t right, that they should be able to choose who they were with - Keith had to pull him away before the Vruihr’s frowns gave way to questioning.  

“Lance, you can’t - just calm down a little, okay?”  

Lance had turned on Keith, looking angry, and Keith took a step backwards, hand removing itself from where it’d latched onto Lance’s elbow. Witnessing his reaction, Lance had taken a deep breath, before reattaching his gaze to Keith’s with a softer expression.  

“It’s just… they’ve been _brainwashed_ , Keith. They’re not - they can’t consent to this, not when they’re - just - ugh…”  

Lance’s breath had seemed to leave him all at once, the Paladin standing hunched over with a forlorn expression on his face. It was almost disjointing to see him looking so distressed; Keith was used to the loud, obnoxious Lance they’d all grown to love, not the sorrowful boy in front of him.  

“Lance…”   

Shit, what could he say?  

“… Look, when we take down the Galra base, we’ll be able to help these people more. But until then, we just need to focus on our mission. The faster we work, the faster we get to address the issue.” That was a relatively good thing to say, right? Right?  

Lance had frowned. “Why not address the issue _now_?”  

“And how do you suppose we do that?”  

The Cuban boy paused for a moment, lip jutting in concentration, before a familiar smirk that did weird things to Keith’s heart made its way across his face.  

“The way I’m used to.”  

Without another word, Lance had turned abruptly on his heel and swaggered in the direction of the group of Vruihr. Dumbfounded, Keith had stared after him, watching as Lance addressed the nearest Vruihr with a smile and a finger gun - which was when it clicked.  

“You’re going to _flirt_ with them?”  

Keith honestly didn’t see what Lance’s plan was. Flirt with them so they fell for him instead of whoever their ‘partner’ was supposed to be? Where was the logic in that?  

Lance was now happily in what seemed to be his comfort zone, his trademark smirk sitting comfortably across his features along with a singular eyebrow raise. Sighing, Keith leaned back against a nearby tree, content for now to observe.  

He sure as hell hoped Lance knew what he was doing.  

Not long later, and Lance had made his way around most of the Vruihr, exchanging smiles and flirtatious comments and earning blushes in return. Keith supposed that it was almost a skill, in a way - a frankly _annoying_ and not-all-that useful skill, but nonetheless. The blue-armoured Paladin kept turning back to Keith every so often, shooting him a grin and a thumbs-up. After the who-knows-how-many-times he’d watched Lance shoot a Vruihr a finger gun, Keith pulled him aside.  

“Lance, what is your plan here? We don’t have long, and you’re spending this entire time messing around -”  

“You’re missing the point, Keith.” After gracing a still-bewildered Keith with another grin, Lance stood atop a rock and began addressing the Vruihr by mass.  

“So, from what I’ve gathered, you’re going to be allocated partners that you reproduce with soon, right?”  

Amid the nodding Vruihr, Keith observed Lance begin some kind of speech, wondering where this was going.  

“What if I told you you don’t have to be allocated partners? What if - if you could choose someone you wanted to be with, or to be with nobody at all!” 

A confused murmur began to arise from the aliens, who were frowning with confusion. Lance pressed on over the noise. 

“Look - where I come from, you get to choose. You get to know someone, maybe fall in love with them - some people get married, and they live their whole lives together - by choice! And some people decide that maybe they’d rather be without a romantic partner, or not be tied down to a singular person - and that’s fine, too! The point is, on Earth you can choose, and on Vrui you should be able to as well!” 

 A stunned silence fell among the group, before a female Vruihr - Keith didn’t know any of their names - spoke up, green eyes wide.  

“What do you mean by ‘love’?” 

Lance’s eyes widened, and he sat down on the rock, his expression turning earnest.  

“Well, it’s like… you really like this person - or, in some cases, people - and you really want to be with them. Sometimes you feel weird around them, like you’re weirdly nervous and your face goes red and you can’t think of what to say. It’s different for everyone - like, say, you might start off hating them.” Lance huffed out a laugh before continuing. “You start by hating them, and you’re jealous of them all the time, and you do _everything_ just to make them notice you but they don’t even _remember_ you. But then you keep learning more about them, and you start helping each other out, and trusting each other, and watching out for each other, and then you realise maybe they’re… not as bad after all… “  

Lance had trailed off, and Keith was staring at him, frozen, because _‘holy shit that was weirdly personal and could it be about me it can’t be about me but it could but WHAT oh crap he’s staring is my face red my face is definitely red -’_  

“So… you feel flustered? A-And your face heats up? Is that love?”  

Snapping out of the trapped-gazing they were in, Lance turned to the Vruihr. “Well, it’s… part of it, I guess? I mean -”  

“That’s how _I_ feel around you, Lance!” The Vruihr exclaimed, staring up with starstruck eyes. “I… I _love_ you, Lance!”  

“I feel that way around him, too! I love Lance!” A male Vruihr stepped forward.  

“I do, too!”  

“I love Lance!”  

“ _I_ love Lance!”  

The sought-after Paladin froze, looking very much like he’d realised he’d messed up.   

“W-Well, that’s not so much _love_ , more _attraction_ , but, uh… I’m flattered! Really!”  

Inching his way towards Keith, Lance began to explain hurriedly while putting distance between himself and the Vruihr. Keith’s hand twitched for his bayard.  

“Look, the thing is, love is… it has to be reciprocated for you to make… advances. The other person has to _agree_ , you see, and…”  

“You don’t love us, Lance?” A Vruihr asked, and were those really tears? Really? Keith maybe sorta loved Lance but he didn’t spend his time crying over him - whatever.  

“How can we _make_ him love us?” Another spoke, and ‘ _that’s it, we’re getting out of here’_. Keith grabbed onto Lance’s wrist and ran, alarmed protests followed by the sound of multiple footsteps sounding behind them.  

“Wh - Keith, what the Hell - ?!” 

Dodging through trees and shrubbery, Keith trusted that Lance would keep running with him and let go of his wrist. After he was satisfied with the amount of distance between them and the group of Vruihr, Keith ducked behind a bush, pulling Lance with him.  

“In my defence, I thought this would go a lot more smoothly,” Lance panted, tilting his head backwards.  

“Of course you did,” Keith muttered. Lance made a sharp cry of indignation, turning to face him with a frown.  “What do you mean by that? I was trying to make them see that they had other options, and they just - took it the wrong way!”  

“Well, maybe _now_ you’ll realise that flirting with everything does not fix the issue,” Keith ground out. “Look where it’s got us - hiding from a horde of aliens who want to - screw you? Keep you as a pet? Who knows?”  

“Well, that’s not my fault!” Lance argued, voice rising.  

“Oh, you were _asking for it!_ ” Keith snapped back, and had just enough time to think ‘ _oh god, that was a fucking awful thing to say_ ’ before he was rewarded for his comment with a fist meeting his face. 

Looking up from his place on the floor, Keith was greeted with Lance looking the angriest he’d ever seen him, rubbing his knuckles with a shaking hand.  

“Don’t you…” Lance breathed, voice catching before speaking stronger. “Don’t you ever say that kind of shit again.”  

Mildly terrified, Keith sat up, shaking his head rapidly. “I won’t - I - I swear I never - I don’t think that -”  

“I get it.” Lance’s voice was lower than usual, lacking its typical brightness, and Keith couldn’t shake the awful feeling that he’d fucked up. He racked his brain, trying to find the words to express what he was trying to say, _God_ why did he have to be so bad at words -  

“There you are! Lance!”  

“Shit.”  

Without properly thinking it through, Keith jumped in front of Lance, bayard formed and ready before him. “Leave him alone!”  

Shocked, the Vruihr stopped in their tracks, blinking cautiously at the sword in front of them. 

“Look…” Oh crap they were _all looking at him. They were all looking at him and he couldn’t talk to massive groups of people oh god oh god oh god_ \- “Y-You can’t… force someone to love you. Or to like you, even. It’s… wrong, be-because - well, because - uh…  

“Okay, so Lance was telling you how you have a choice, right? And in love, and relationships, both people have a choice. That’s… very important. The point, that, ah, that Lance was trying to make, is that… You should all have a choice. In everything, that is - not just love, but everything you do. Y-You’ve been told that… that all you have to do is do what the Galra say, right? And that’s… that’s not right. You have a choice.”  

…  

‘Well, that was a shitty speech.’  

No one moved; Lance was stuck staring at Keith, Keith was staring at the floor in the hopes it would open up beneath him any time soon, and the Vruihr were all staring at Keith with the same expression.  

 _“Keith!”_   

The sudden voice through his com startled Keith. 

“Shiro?”  

 _“Keith, Lance, we’re going to need backup. Can you make your way here?”_   

“We’re on our way,” Lance confirmed, setting out in the direction of the Galra base.   

 

* * *

 

“On your left, Keith!” Lance yelled, just before a Galra sentry could attack. Keith dodged, swung, and sliced into the body of the drone, removing his sword from its body to move on to the next attacker.  

“Guys, there’s more incoming!” Pidge cried, Hunk confirming he’d join her for backup. “There’s loads of them!”  

“Shiro, what do we do?” Keith asked frantically, swinging his sword at another sentry. There were far too many of them, there was no chance the five of them could get through all of these alone -  

A loud crash sounded from the other end of the hall, and Keith turned to see… a horde of Vruihr, loud and raging.   

“What - ?” 

Blowing ten sentries into pieces without even touching them, one of the Vruihr - the one who had asked Lance what love meant earlier - stepped forward to address them.  

“We were thinking of your words, Paladins Keith and Lance, and… you’re right. We do have a choice. And so, we will fight for our right to make our own choices.”  

Before anyone could reply, the Vruihr let out a loud battle cry, attacking the Galra forces with a force Keith hadn’t thought them capable of. Unleashing their powers on the fighters, the battle was over almost instantaneously, and the people of Vrui were free.   

 

* * *

 

“Lance?”  

The brunet boy turned his head from where he’d been watching the stars, eyes widening when he saw Keith. 

“Yeah?”  

“I - uh… I just wanted to apologise. For what I said, back on Vrui.”  

Lance’s eyes softened, posture relaxing as he smiled. “Nah, don’t worry too much about it.”  

“No, it - it was wrong, it was an awful thing to say, and I don’t - I don’t think like that. No one asks for - for anything like that.”  

“I know, dude. What you say doesn’t always correlate with what you think, I get that.”  

Blinking, Keith sat down next to Lance, gazing up at the stars so he wouldn’t have to make eye contact.  

“Well, I guess… It did go as smoothly as you thought.”  

That earned Keith a snort from Lance, which was _unfairly cute_ , as he lay his head down on Keith’s shoulder.  

“Is this okay?” he mumbled, and somewhere over the ‘ _oh my god oh my god oh my god I am too gay for this shit_ ‘ in his brain Keith managed a coherent “Yeah.”  

Keith could see the appeal of sitting up here; it was quiet, and the view of space - stars, asteroids, distant planets if they ever flew near to a solar system - was incredible. If he needed a moment to calm his head, he’d probably return here.  

“When you were talking about love, back there…” and _woah when did Keith allow those words to exit his mouth?_ , “… it sounded kinda… personal. Like… you know… the whole “starting by hating them” and “them not even remembering you” thing?”  

Feeling Lance stiffen, Keith wondered if he’d crossed a line. Maybe he should have left it for another time? 

“So, you noticed it was about you, huh.”  

“Well, uh…” Keith felt his face heat up. “I mean, yeah. Kinda.”  

Neither of the two said anything for a moment, simply breathing together and watching the stars pass by. Feeling the brush of Lance’s hair on his neck, and the rise and fall of their chests as the both of them inhaled and exhaled in unison, Keith honestly would have been content to stay still there forever.  

But, there were probably things that needed to be addressed.  

“I feel the same way, you know,” he murmured.  

Lance startled, limbs sprawling in different directions as he sprung away from Keith. “Wait - you _do? WHY?!_ ”  

What sort of question was that?  

“Well, you’re - you’re _Lance_. You make jokes to cheer us up, you care about everyone, you’re passionate, you always put others before yourself. You’re - just - eh, words.”  Lance chuckled, then moved closer to Keith again.   

“Well…”  

“Well.”  

“Be my boyfriend?” Lance asked, turning to Keith with that smirk that did weird things to his insides, and those eyes sparkling the way they would when he’s excited, and, well…  

“Sure, Sharpshooter.” 


End file.
